Do dogs understand delayed punishment

If you apply behaviour science to dog training, there’s no need for punishment,
compulsion or intimidation writes MICHELLE HILL

During the last century, dog training has undergone an evolution of sorts. It wasn’t so long ago that the lexicon of dog training included the words ‘punishment’, ‘compulsion’ and ‘intimidation’.
The tools of the trade were things designed to inflict pain and cruelty as a way of training dogs to do or not do things the handlers wanted. Dogs were punished with ear pinches and the like if they didn’t perform the desired behaviors. The idea of training a dog was to break the animal of some bad habit.
One of the forefathers of scientific study into dog behavior was Edward Thorndike (1874-1949). He studied the effect of positive reinforcement on dog behavior. Thorndike called his study ‘the law of effect’.
His study put forth the idea that the key to understanding how to train dogs was to understand canine behavior. Behaviors that produce an effect that is desirable are ones that a dog is more likely to repeat, whereas behaviors
that produce an undesirable effect are ones that are less likely to be repeated. He gave us our entire foundation for trial and error training, which helped us to focus on problem-solving skills during training.
BF Skinner (1904-1990) – one of the most well-known figures of behaviorism – built on Thorndike’s findings with the help of a mouse in a box to reveal a detailed picture of the principles of learning. This is where we learned that desired behaviors should be reinforced and shaped in incremental steps to form complex behaviors.
Skinner also helped us to learn that animals need immediate reinforcement to better facilitate the learning process.
Marian and Keller Breland, both students of Skinner worked to merge the fields of professional animal training and modern behavioral science. They wanted to teach people there was a more humane way to train animals. It was through their efforts that the world of dog training was introduced to the idea of using kindness instead of fear and force, as well as the principles of operant conditioning.
After the death of Keller Breland, Marian met and married Bob Bailey. Together the couple worked with a non-profit
organization to train service dogs. Their work to bring forth positive reinforcement dog training cannot be emphasized enough.
The basis for the positive reinforcement dog training that we know today came from the work of Karen Pryor. It was her
thoughts and theories published in her 1984 book Don’t Shoot the Dog, that brought positive reinforcement and clicker training into mainstream dog training.
Clicker training is a good way to help dogs learn to exercise those problem-solving skills,
in a positive way. The clicker by itself means nothing to our dogs; however, when we apply behavior science, we are able to teach our dogs that the sound of the click comes when they have done a behavior that we desire. This allows us to shape or capture behaviors that our dogs do. The best example of this put into practice is, well, just about every behavior our dogs do, thankfully! Rolling over To get a rollover, the first thing your dog needs to be able to do is to follow a food lure. This means that your dog will simply move towards a treat you hold and move with your hand.

• Start with your dog in a sit.
• Holding a treat just at your dog’s nose, lower your hand slowly down towards your dog’s front feet. Be careful not to pull the treat out in an arch from your dog’s nose or he will stand up to follow it.
• As you lower the treat down, your dog should follow it until he is lying down on his stomach.
• Once your dog is in a down position, take the treat and move it slowly towards his shoulder. As his head follows the treat around, he should lop over to lay on his side.
• Continue to pull the treat over and he should lip completely over back on to his stomach again. At this point, you would click and give him his well-earned reward.
All training can be this easy when we learn to apply behavior science to work with our dog’s natural thought processes. When we work together with our dogs to learn new behaviors or new ways to respond to specific situations, amazing things can be accomplished – but we have to learn to think outside of the box.
Dogs do not think the same way we do, but they are highly intelligent. Our dogs learn what we teach them. To learn from our past, instead of trying to ‘break’ a dog of a habit we should instead be teaching them a new more desirable habit – such as how to greet people. Instead of allowing our dogs to practice jumping up on our guests and strangers,
we should actively teach them how to sit to greet people. Using your lead and keeping your dog focused on you while you meet other people will help your dog learn that he needs to stay calm when people approach him. To help him learn to remain sitting when someone comes up, have him sit before allowing people to pet him.
If your dog jumps, remember to ask the person to back away without touching your dog. Your dog will learn that if he puts his feet on a person, it causes that person to go away. Dogs are very social beings and love to greet and get attention from others. When they make the connection between jumping up on someone and it causing that person to go away, they will stop jumping up, allowing them to calmly wait for someone to come up and pet them.
Training our dogs should always remain fun and positive for both the human and the dog. Our dogs are emotional mirrors, meaning they take in our feelings and reflect them back to us. If we get frustrated because we are having a hard time communicating with our dog what we want them to do, then they will also become frustrated trying to figure out how to understand what to do.
Always try to end your training sessions on a happy note with a success, even if it’s not the big finish that you wanted.
by dogsmonthly.